2014-07-20
French Style Furs is Nathan Willett and Matt Maust from Cold War Kids, with Nathan Warketin from the band, We Barbarians. (Also included are guests on percussion, vocals, and horns.) This L.A. band wrote the lyrics for debut, Is Exotic Bait, based on the poetry of 20th century monk, Thomas Merton. The album starts out promising with distorted vocals and fuzzy guitar on opener "Three Friends". It rocks even more with sludgy bass adding to the mix on second track, "All the Way Down". At this point I am liking it. However, on track three, "The World in My Bloodstream", things get a little sketchy. As the worst track on the album, it introduces keys and heartfelt lyrics to make a pop song like any other. The rest of the disc, while still sometimes offering garage rock overtones is still hit or miss until ninth track, the rocker "Christmas Card" redeems it. Rebecca Ruth
EMILY HAINES
Knives Don't Have Your Back
JASON MRAZ
We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.
DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS
GO GO BOOTS
LISA LOEB
No Fairy Tale
VARIOUS ARTISTS
A Tribute to Joni Mitchell
Joseph Arthur
Could We Survive
The opinions expressed in these reviews are those of the individual volunteers that submitted the article and do not necessarily reflect the views of WYCE or GRCMC; nor its staff, donors, or affiliates.